Love, Hate, and Other Cliches - REMAKE
by Aliorio
Summary: It all started with a handkerchief and a kiss.
1. The Curiosity that Killed the Cat

_AN: Geez... I think it's been almost a year since I even looked at this website. Sorry, guys... I don't even know if anyone remembers this story. It's been ages... I looked back at my old stories and I thought... dang... I was just awful. It's just embarrassing to look at. But good news! Over the time that I've been gone, I've improved my writing skills and I'm ready to get back in business! Here's the ever strong recovery of "Love, Hate, and Other Cliches!"_

_T for bad language, violence. Warning for mention of child + verbal abuse and kidnapping. (Not in this chapter specifically, but later in the story it'll be inevitable.) Should there be anything potentially triggering that I haven't included here, I'll put a warning at the beginning of the chapter. Gender role stuff and... very, very slight weight shaming too, sorry. I'm trying to accurately depict what 14 year olds are like, meaning that I can't make them fully informed sj workers. _

_*Len is a growing teenage boy by the way, alright? Keep that in mind and what it may entail... eeek..._

* * *

**Love, Hate, and Other Cliches  
**

I stared into her eyes, trying to search for something - anything other than that plaintive, hollow expression. But there was nothing. Nothing but anxiety and guilt and pain and anger and panic. I wanted to say I sympathized with her, say that she wasn't alone, but there was no way I could say that without it being a lie. I couldn't ever possibly understand the pure anguish she was feeling. I couldn't even think of words to comfort her. How could I? There was nothing I could say that would make up for what had just happened.

"N… Neru, I…"

Finally, Neru tore her eyes away from the floor and directed them at me. Her features fluctuated between horror and agony and disbelief, each drenched in complete despair.

"Kuu… wha… I… I…"

That's when I saw the greatest shock from her yet. A tear. I never would have thought that I'd see her do something like cry, and there she was, trying her best to stop herself from bawling. It was enough to remind me that despite her bad attitude, her limitless stubbornness, and her stony disposition, she was still a normal person with normal feelings.

And then Neru surprised me again. She-

… Wait, wait, wait. Scratch that. Scratch all of that.

You guys would want me to start from the very, very beginning, right? Forget all of that for now.

It would be better to start from the very, very beginning, right? Forget all of that for now.

If my memory serves me correctly, it must all have began something like this.

* * *

_**Love, Hate, and Other Clichés**_

Chapter 1

_The Curiosity that Killed the Cat_

"You gonna wake up any time soon, Outoto?"

"…Go away, Rin."

"It's 6AM, Outoto! You only have 20 minutes to fix your hair. It's a disaster, you know!"

"Alright, alright… But didn't I tell you several times to stop calling me 'Outoto?'"

"What?! Then what else am I supposed to call you!?"

"There's my name, for one."

"Really? You expect me to call me by your name, Outoto? I thought we were closer than that! Boohoo!"

"Isn't that just contradictory? You don't usually call…nevermind. I'm getting up now, so will you leave already?"

She never did use my name that morning, so here it is.

My name is Kagamine Len. I'm 14 years old, and... I've never really been any good at these introductory things. I'm normal, if anything else. The only attributes I have that could be called a talent are my aikido skills, but otherwise my grades are as average as average can be. On the attractiveness scale, anyone would say I'm a five out of ten. My favorite thing in the world? Sarcasm. Bananas are good, too.

That girl's name is Rin, and she's my older (by a few minutes) twin sister. We're complete opposites, despite our identical looks. She's got a stand-outish, obnoxious personality and she's lazy yet full of energy at the same time. The girl never really knows when to stop talking, either. A typical annoying sister.

After my terribly average morning routine (brushing teeth, making my hair presentable, getting in my uniform), I headed downstairs to our kitchen. I think Rin and I were both silently surprised to see two bowls of steamed rice, miso soup, and a side of grilled fish waiting for us at the low table. It came as such an eye-opener because Dad never makes us breakfast. As a matter of fact, we never really see him in the mornings before school at all, yet there he was, sitting on his knees and sipping coffee from his dad-mug in a very dad-like fashion. He didn't even look up from his newspaper when we walked in, but had apparently acknowledged that we were in the room and duly said "Good morning," which we returned as we dove into our food. It must only be for today, I had guessed. Today was special.

My parents aren't together, so we live with my Dad. He's a good guy, but I must have gotten my terribly, terribly plain personality from him.

Our Mom and he had fallen utterly, completely in love when they were in high school. This later led to disaster when they had had kids too soon (which turned out to be twins. Yeah.) and Mom decided just before marriage that she wasn't ready, saying things like she was a "free spirit," "couldn't ever possibly settle down," "the world is her oyster," "needs to spread her wings," silly stuff like that. It's all pretty ridiculous, if you ask me. She just left my Dad with only a note and their engagement ring. and he never had the heart to tell us exactly what it said.

But he always did tell Rin and I about her every night when we were little. If you didn't know what happened in the end like we didn't back then, the stories sounded really heart-warming and fairytale-esque. He spoke of her like she was one of the best things to happen to him in his life, like he had met an actual goddess, but whenever we asked him where she was, why Mom wasn't there with us, he'd always say, "If you love something, set it free."

I couldn't ever imagine a guy like me falling in love, though.

Rin kissed Dad's cheek, and he gave me a firm handshake. His expression looked contemplative for a moment, as if searching for the appropriate words to say. He can be a really awkward guy sometimes, so I wasn't surprised when he just went with a dad-like cough and said "Good luck." We would need it, too. It's our first day in our new school.

We move around every two or three years, and there's usually never a good reason. No job promotions, no escape mechanism, no rhyme or reason to it other than tradition. Rin's always heartbroken over having to leave behind the friends she makes, but I get over it pretty easily. I guess I just don't get attached to others that well, especially knowing that I'll only know the people I meet for a few years. I'm not a hermit or anything, but I've never had any "best" friends as a result. Normal friends that I could talk to and partner up with in class I had a bunch of, but no one worth inviting over for dinner or sleepovers. If you were to ask anyone I've met over the years, the word they'd use to describe me would be "distant," I'm sure. Assuming they even remembered me, which I doubt.

Rin, on the other hand, got along with a lot of people, and some she even got really close to. A few years ago, I saw her on her hands and knees in front of dad, begging him to change his mind about moving so that she wouldn't have to leave her friend, Teto Kasane. It was hard not to sympathize with her, even though I didn't know Kasane very well, because she had easily become a member of the family. It was rarer to _not_ see Kasane in the house than the other way around.

They still talk to each other, but only every few weeks. I don't think their friendship will ever be the same.

...

Rin and I walked to the bus stop after leaving our house, she a few feet in front of me and skipping merrily. She's always like this on our first days, always excited to meet new people and make new friends. It's probably better not to think about it the way I do and distance yourself from others because you won't know them very long, and I admire her a little for it. She's optimistic, despite being a nuisance sometimes. I'll give her that.

We don't get on any of those fabled American yellow buses like you see in the movies. Here in Japan, we have to use our own method of transportation to get to school. The bus we're taking is the same kind that car-less adults ride to get where they need to go. They typically smell bad and have a bunch of advertisements about idols and energy drinks. Rin and I both showed the driver our bus passes and climbed on board, not daring to try actually sitting down on any of the seats. If you have any experience with these types of buses, you know that people do all sorts of disgusting stuff on them. Our stop must have been early in the route, because there weren't many people aboard it yet. She and I settled for an iron pole in the center of the vehicle to support ourselves from falling over, but not before simultaneously reaching into our pockets and taking out our can never be too safe with these public transportation places. We waited. It was an uneventful drive.

Well, it was, up until a pair of girls in our school's uniform arrived on the bus shortly afterwards. The first I saw was tall and busty, and her hair was… white. The way she carried herself was absolutely submissive and shy. I could see her head dart all around the bus in every direction, visibly paranoid and anxious like a kid who had lost his mother in a supermarket. The other one, apparently accompanying the white-haired girl, was nearly an entire foot shorter. Her hair was a mustard colored blonde in a sloppily tied side-ponytail. Her thick eyebrows matched the color of her hair, with hazel eyes to match. The expression on her face was hard and annoyed, as if there was a "do not disturb" sign taped onto it. She seemed the type who'd actually bite you if you were to bother her. In short, they both came off as polar opposites.

Before going anywhere, the taller girl whispered something worriedly in the blonde one's ear. The busdriver and a few passengers seemed irritated. She raised an eyebrow and didn't reply as quietly, because Rin and I both were able to hear it. The two of us as well as some other people on the bus were watching it all go down. It wasn't as if we had anything else to look at.

"It's not a problem, Haku. Don't you see the other poles available? Calm down already, moron."

"I…is it? Okay… I'm sorry…" She hung her head slightly, shyly embarrassed as far as I could tell. The blonde just shook her head and patted her friend's back with a very, very slight grin.

And then the bus shot forward out of nowhere and knocked both of them off of their feet.

Or maybe it was just Haku, because the blonde caught herself swiftly and lifted herself up. The other wasn't so agile, having collided with the filthy ground face first.

"Hey! What the hell was that?! Didn't you see that we were still walking?" The blonde glared hard in the direction of the bus driver's seat and her hands shot up, accusatory, but he barely returned the acknowledgment.

"I got a schedule t'follow, kid. Keep movin' or you and your friend are outta here."

"Excuse me? Just who do you think you are?! How about you try getting off of your lazy fat ass and come-!"

"It's…it's okay, Neru-san… W-we… we were taking too long…" Haku's voice didn't sound any louder than a peep, what with the yelling, but somehow Neru was able to hear her friend gather herself off of the dirty floor. It seemed like there was a bruise forming on her cheek, but the dirt didn't show on her navy blue uniform. Haku's voice had apparently soothed the obvious anger present in Neru's tone, causing the blonde's volume to reach something much quieter. She turned towards the other girl and clenched her fists.

"Haku…."

"I'm sorry…"

Haku stared at the floor shamefully while Neru held eye contact for a few strained seconds, then peacefully went to the very back of the bus.

...

It was pretty quiet after that.

Rin and I stayed silent for the remainder of the ride. The girls behind us didn't talk, either. I might have been imagining it, but everyone seemed to have been staring at the blonde one… expectant.

When it was finally time for our stop, Rin hopped to the front, apparently eager to leave. I was right behind her, up until I made the mistake of looking back and saw the other girls still idly standing at the pole. I didn't think they realized that it was time to get off, and I was presented with two options:

_A. Leave them and let them miss their stop, it's not your problem._

_B. One of them has a bruise on her face and should see a nurse. Come on, Len._

I debated the two options in my head for a few seconds, weighing the pros and cons. You can say I was overthinking, but I really, really hate confronting others, especially people I've never met before. Forcing my hands in my pockets and exhaling tiredly, I shoved my heart back down my throat and turned around to face the girls behind me.

"…Hey, you both are Sorairo students, aren't you?" The shorter girl was engrossed in her phone and didn't even look at me, but Haku nervously glanced around left and right before answering.

"Um…are you talking to us…?"

"I don't…see anyone else I could be talking to. Do you?"

"I-I…am I supposed to…?" I was worried that I was scaring her or something, despite being five or more inches shorter. She seemed like she was really on the verge of tears. Instantly, I knew that this had been a bad idea.

"C…Hey, calm down. I was kidding."

"Oh… I'm sorry…"

"You don't have to-alright, we're holding up the bus. Are you from Sorairo or not?"

"Um…yes… How did you know…?" I glanced at her uniform with our school's insignia stitched above her chest pointedly, but she didn't notice.

"...Lucky guess. But this is your stop, isn't it?" I gestured to the windows which revealed Sorairo Junior High. If there was anything to compensate for the hour it took to get there, it was the exterior of the school. In front of the school was a 20, maybe 25 foot bridge extending over a lake of dazzling blue. It looked clean enough for fish to swim in. Alongside the length of the bridge were rows of even bluer potted flowers encased and supported by clear glass. It had an arched shape, like a cat stretching after its nap. The school itself was mostly white, with stories and stories of glass windows that could've fooled someone into thinking it was tall enough to really touch the sky. Separate buildings extended from what I assumed to be the main building through tiled paths. Of course, there was enough green to account for several football stadiums. And you can't have a high school in the spring without Sakura trees blossoming, can you, because there were probably hundreds of them, dotted randomly and sporadically within the school's college-like campus.

_'Get to the point already,'_ is what you're thinking, right? Sorry.

Haku followed the direction my hand pointed in with her (…maroon?) eyes, which quickly widened from their partially closed state as she gasped inwardly. While she immediately went to alert her friend, I repositioned my hands in my sweater jacket and went on ahead. Rin was, surprisingly, waiting for me a few seats in front of where I was and grinning annoyingly, as if she had something to tease me about. But she didn't.

"Hey, what's your name?"

I was a footstep in front of Rin when she stopped right beside the driver and turned to face him. She had a very fake, almost threatening wide smile that looked like it creeped out both the busdriver and I.

"…What're you askin' me that for, kid?"

"Oh, no reason! I mean, I guess your name doesn't really matter much, does it? After all, you're just a busdriver! That may as well be your name, right? Busdriver-san!"

"The hell-"

"Yep! Because no one cares about your name really, am I wrong? How long have you been doing this, anyway? Most people are proud of how long they've been doing their work, but what about you? Ten years? Fifteen? Maybe even twenty?! Isn't that kind of sad? I mean, this is a pretty crappy job, isn't it?"

"Rin, I think you ought to-"

"You also seem kinda old. Forty? Fifty? Sixty, even?! How are you ever going to save up enough money for retirement with a dead end job like this?

"You…you better shut your mouth right now, kid, or I swear I'll-!"

"You're not going to try and hit me, are you? Isn't this job the only thing of value in your life? Do you really want to lose it and go to jail? I'd have thought that this was a lot more important to you, crappy as it is."

"Khh-!"

"I suggest anger management lessons, Busdriver-san. Your temper is pretty flammable, especially seeing as how you made a girl trip and hurt herself because she was taking her time, you know? I don't even wanna know what kind of stressful and tight life you've had that made you such a terrible guy. Maybe you should just quit your job instead. It hasn't made you any better as a person, has it? Was the pay worth becoming who you are now?"

"…Rin, we really need to-"

"You're right, Outoto! I think we've been holding up the rest of the bus, haven't we? Sorry, everyone! We'll just get on our way now. See you this afternoon, Busdriver-san!"

"…"

"…"

Rin ushered me to follow her as she energetically waved goodbye to the busdriver.

You probably don't want to hear about our classes. Those were just the usual new kid introductory things. We didn't actually have to do any classwork. Rin got chatty with our classmates instantly like she usually does, and a few people wouldn't leave me alone for a while either. I hate the first few weeks as the transfer students; we get treated like zoo animals, like trophies on display that people can ogle as much as they please. Not to mention I hate the "New Kids" trope.

Lunch came, and a bunch of our classmates invited us to eat with them. While Rin struggled to decide whose company she wanted, I politely declined all offers and got out of my seat to go… somewhere else. I didn't have any place in mind where I wanted to go. (Not that I could, being completely unfamiliar with the building.) I just knew that I didn't want to deal with a flood of personal questions while struggling to memorize names and faces. Rin was too distracted to try to stop me.

I turned a left, a right, climbed a staircase and took another left. I ended up exploring the school more than actually eating my own lunch. Outside the windows I could see some sport teams, and I peeked in the windows of some classes and saw a few clubrooms. I've never done any school activities other than aikido, and I wasn't looking to join a new one. I moved on.

I was about to turn another corner until I heard two feminine voices. One of them I felt that I had heard before, but the other was higher pitched and more cheerful.

"…about it, Neru-chan?"

"I'm not the mood to waste my time today and I'm definitely not going to waste it with you."

"Oh, but you're never in the mood! We never spend any time together, Neru-chan…"

"That's because you hate me, and I hate you. Stop acting innocent and get out of my way." Neru retorted loathe fully and shoved past the other girl (will I get charged if I say "bluenette"?), whom feinted hurt and quickly followed after her.

"You're bringing tears to my eyes!" Her pursuer flailed obnoxiously and dropped to her knees, reaching for Neru's ankle as she walked away, three feet, six feet, while dramatically placing the back of her hand on her forehead. "Someone get me a handkerchief, anyone…?"

I probably should have stopped watching right then and there, it was none of my business, but for some reason, I wanted to see what this girl's relationship was with Neru. (And felt a bit of pity.) They clearly weren't friends, so why was she so stuck on getting her attention? I dug my hand into my pocket and withdrew the thin piece of cloth that I used on the bus earlier and was faced with another choice. Do I entertain this girl in order to find out why she's so clingy to Neru, or do I regain my senses and mind my own business like I normally do?

Later that day, I would learn the true meaning of the phrase "curiosity killed the cat".

I closed the distance between the two girls and I and bent on one knee, awkwardly offering her what she had requested. What was it with me and getting involved in other people's problems that day? It must have been the enormous new school, making me dizzy and messing up my head or something.

She didn't even notice at first and neither did Neru, so I coughed loudly and got their attention.

"So…take it." I was doing something bold and stupid and completely unlike me and I didn't know why, but I did. "Are you…you know, okay?."

_What the _hell_ am I doing?_ I thought.

They both looked at me for the first time, and I started to sweat. _Why am I so stupid?_

The girl on the ground stared, eyebrows raised, like she was surprised that someone was dumb enough to actually give her one.

"Oh, oh, oh! Oh! Oooh! Don't you see, Neru-chan? Don't you see what your cruelty is doing to yourself?" The overdramatic girl said, completely befuddling me as she snatched the piece out of my hand. Neru glared stiffly at me, like she was angry because of what I did.

"Don't humor her. She just wants your attention." She muttered sternly, then looked away and took out her phone, but I could tell she was trying to seem indifferent, to act like she didn't care about what I thought about this situation. If she wasn't, she would have left already.

The other apparently couldn't tell and her expression instantly shifted to something much more enraged and offended. I took it she didn't like being ignored.

"Ha ha ha," She chuckled stiffly. "Ha ha HA! That's…so funny, Neru-chan! You must be the opposite then, right? Trying to be all cool and mysterious, pretending that I don't exist!"

From there, it happened so quickly that I didn't get a chance to react. The blue-haired girl shot up from the ground and stuffed my handkerchief in Neru's mouth. She dropped her phone in surprise, but almost immediately grabbed the other girl by the wrist and hurled her backwards. Miraculously, she landed on her feet, but Neru didn't wait for her to steady herself. She ran straight at the blue-haired girl and threw a kick. The other just barely ducked and threw a few hairpins at Neru's face. It seemed pointless and ineffective at first, but then I realized what she was actually trying to do; the girl with the pigtails wanted Neru's phone, and the pins had just been a distraction. I only watched as she snatched it up with her blue finger-painted nails and curled herself into a ball a split second later, rolling away from Neru's incoming kick. Neru came hurling right after her until the other held up her fingernail next to the phone's touchscreen.

"You wouldn't want to get any ugly scratch marks on your Android, would you, Neru-chan?"

"Give it back, Miku," Neru growled in a low voice. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but if you mess with my phone, I swear to God I'll-"

"Oh sure, sure! I promise I won't break it! But you have to promise me something in return, okay? Meet me at the tree outside the health room. You know, the really really tall one? 6:30 o'clock after school!"

Miku, I assumed her name to be, since Neru had just called her that, avoided another punch and hid behind my back. She put her hands on my shoulders and pulled me closer to her. I flinched. I'd been frozen in place for so long that I didn't even notice her there until she kissed my cheek and said, "Bring this cutie along with you, by the way, or no deal!" and abruptly skipped away.

Huh? Yeah, I said that she kissed my cheek. No idea where that came from.

My face felt warm and my eyes widened a little. I'd never been kissed at all by a girl before, so don't judge me when I say that I blushed and felt my cheek with my fingers. Had she really just called me cute? _Me?_

But then I remembered the circumstances and felt less flustered. That girl, Miku, she probably didn't mean it and just wanted to irritate Neru, considering the equally red color on her own face that I saw when I looked. I guessed stuff like that embarrasses her. I shouldn't be over thinking about that sort of thing anyway, I don't even know that girl, and from what I've seen, she's definitely not my type. (Not that I even know what my type is, just... not _that._)

We waited in the hallway as the sound of Miku's footsteps eventually faded further and further away, until it was just the two of us standing in uncomfortable silence. I didn't know what to make of everything that had just happened. I'd just left my classroom to explore the building, witnessed a random fight between two girls, and gotten my first kiss from a girl I didn't know. I've had a lot of "first day at a new school"'s in my life, but this was by far the weirdest and most eventful.

Neru finally did something to break the silence - she groaned loudly enough for every classroom in the hallway to hear and kicked a wall so hard it left a crack. The walls had looked sturdy, so I was surprised that she didn't break at least a few toes on impact. She looked as if she wanted to punch another thing, to take out her anger on something else, and I wasn't so sure that it was going to be just a wall this time, so I started to turn around and leave. She was sharp, though, and caught me moving no more than probably an inch.

"Hey! You're not going anywhere, kid." Neru said as she flicked her light brown eyes towards me. I stopped moving and looked at her hesitantly, a little worried to be dealing with a person that seemed ready to pulverize me.

"Uh… why is that?"

"Because I need you come with me and get my phone back!"

"I still don't see why I need to come with you to do this."

"Do I have to explain everything? It's because Miku said that you need to come, too."

"I didn't think she was serious about that, though."

"It doesn't matter whether or not she was being serious! I'm not taking any risks. Just come with me!"

"Gee, I'd love to, but… Getting involved with girls who break out into fights at school reeeally isn't how I like to spend my afternoons."

"Fine." Neru huffed and folded her arms against her chest. "What do you want?"

"To be left alone?" I offered, pointing in the direction of the exit.

"No, you idiot! I mean, what do I have to do to get you to come with me?"

"I don't want anything from you, really. I just want to pretend I didn't see anything and go on with my day."

"Okay, this is bothering me, so I want to ask you something. I'm pretty sure I've seen your face before, but I don't remember. Do I know you?"

"We just ride the same bus to get here, that's all."

"Oh, you and that girl. You're the ones that took the pole Haku and I always use!"

"Took your pole? I don't know wh-"

...

_"'It's not a problem, Haku. Don't you see the other poles available? Calm down already, moron.'_

_'I…is it? Okay… I'm sorry…'_

_And then the bus shot forward out of nowhere and knocked both of them off of their feet."_

…

"... Oh. Sorry about that." It might have been indirect, but Rin and I taking Neru and her friends' spot on the bus was the reason why they held up the bus and Haku hurt herself. It wasn't _really_ our fault, but I still felt a little guilty about it.

"_'Sorry'_ nothing! You have five seconds to say you'll come with me before I kick your ass, kid. One, two, thr-"

"Alright, alright! I'll go. Just stop calling me kid, I'm pretty sure we're in the same grade."

"Then what else am I supposed to call you?"

"You could have asked for my name. It's Kagamine Len."

I had a feeling of deja vu.

...

_"'It's 6AM, Outoto! You only have 20 minutes to fix your hair. It's a disaster, you know!'_

_'Alright, alright… But didn't I tell you several times to stop calling me Outoto?'_

_'What?! Then what else am I supposed to call you!?'_

_'There's my name, for one.'"_

…

"... Akita Neru. 6:30 tonight at the health room. If you stand me up, I'll really make you regret it tomorrow!" As Neru stared at me, examining me with her eyes like I was some interesting new species to a scientist, somehow I felt that this girl would be a problem for me in the future. I felt that our conflicts wouldn't just end after I helped her get her phone back, that I'd be seeing her more than just on the bus to and from school. Her sloppily tied ponytail, her unbuttoned uniform jacket, her permanently furrowed brows and steely eyes, all of it screamed bad news to me; this isn't the type of girl I should be getting involved with, I told myself. I should just take a beating tomorrow instead of concerning myself with her, instead of complicating my school life like this. I should stay away from those girls and keep living the peaceful school life that I've always devoted myself to, leaving people to their own affairs until I graduated quietly and normally.

But for some reason, I don't know why, I'd done a lot of getting involved with other peoples' problems on that day. I told Haku that she and Neru were about to miss their stop, I intervened between Miku and Neru, I got involved in something that wasn't any of my business. I thought, maybe this should be the year that I don't hide so much. Maybe I should try being a new Kagamine Len and open up to other people.

I had no idea what a terrible choice that was.

* * *

_AN: Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong! This is -not- going to be a Miku x Len story, I promise! Len only blushed because - well, what boy wouldn't when a pretty girl kisses his cheek? I don't even like MikuLen, Miku's just flirty and Len is a dork. If the next chapter is going to be as long as this one, you can expect an update… I dunno, in a week or two maybe? Unless I'm bored and just get it all done in a day or two haha. Till the next update, see you guys!_


	2. The Wind Knocked Out of You

"Where are you going, Outoto?"

Rin called after me as I headed down the stairs in our house. It was 4:45 PM, about two hours after our school day had ended. I had long since been out of my uniform and instead wore a simple white shirt and my favorite pair of shorts, with a thin jacket tied around my waist just in case it got cold later on. Since dad was at work, I thought that I wouldn't have any problems getting out of the house, but Rin persisted to be a problem. She's normally asleep the minute we get home from school, so I had hoped that I would be free for the next few hours until she woke up.

"I have to go meet a girl from schoo-" I frowned, froze, and stopped myself. "I mean, not a girl! Just-"

I was too late. Rin had already started screaming.

The loudest, squeakiest, most obnoxious noise I had ever heard in my life filled my ears instantly. Rin's voice rattled and tore through the air, loud enough for everyone in a 50 meter radius to hear. Probably. Before I could try to run, Rin tackled me down the stairs. I shouted in surprise and collided with the hardwood floor. My head thudded against the ground and I groaned in pain, cradling the back of my head as it throbbed and a bruise started to form.

"Rin, what the hell is wrong with you?!" I hissed through clenched teeth, both of my eyes shut tightly.

"After all of these years thinking you were gay, my little brother finally has a girlfriend! EEEEE-"

"No! I don't have a girlfriend! Ow, ow, ow! Get off of me, you're heavy!"

"Then who's this girl you're meeting, huh? Don't lie to me, Outoto! I can tell when you lie!"

"I'm. Not. Lying!" I pried Rin's arms off of my neck with all of my strength and shoved her away from me. I'm _not_ weak, it's just that Rin is unnaturally strong. It doesn't even make sense how she's got enough muscle to lift up a 120 lb. weight when she's too lazy to work out at all. I think that it's got something to do with that bow on her head; I'm pretty sure I've seen it move on its own before.

"Look, you know the blonde girl that we saw on the bus today? That's who I'm going to see. She only asked me to go help her with something after school."

"You mean the the sort've short one with a temper?" I nodded. "Hmm… it _seems_ like you're telling the truth, but what's her name?"

"Akita Neru. She's in our grade, too."

"What class?"

"I don't know, she didn't tell me."

"And you two are going to meet… at her house?! How indecent! I'm telling dad!"

"No, we're not! I'm just taking the bus to school, and I'm going to miss the next one if you keep asking me these questions."

"Alright, alright, last one! So you say that this girl asked you to help her with something…"

"Yeah, and…?"

"And you agreed to it? That sounds awfully outgoing of you, Outoto."

"Well, I was sort've threatened, so-"

"Details, details! I can see it in your eyes little brother, you _want_ to help Neru-chan! I mean, she _was_ kinda cute, wasn't she? I bet you're just going along with this because you wanna… you know." Rin paused and made a series of incomprehensible hand gestures. One second she was doing the itsy-bitsy-spider and the next some sort of phrase in sign language. I sighed.

"Rin, I really don't have time for this."

"Oh _fine_, go. Just remember - if things don't work out with Neru-chan, I'll be glad to take her off your hands!

"Wh-"

"Bye-bye!"

...

It was 6:46 by the time I got where I needed to be. I was directed to go outside health room where a supposed tree awaited, but no one had actually told me exactly how to get there. I was stuck running around the unnecessarily large campus for an extra 16 minutes until I found it. Neru and "Miku" were already there when had I arrived, standing away from each other at a considerable distance. Even if it was only the two of them around, I wasn't so confident about showing up abruptly like this and saying, "Hey! What'd I miss?"

Thankfully (unfortunately), Miku saw me the minute I was noticeable and beckoned for me to come over. A feeling of nervousness and apprehensiveness formed in my gut - the air around them radiated tension and suspense, like both of them were waiting for the other to pull something. Something that would be really inconvenient for me to get between.

"Len-kun! You came for me!" Miku squealed girlishly and ran straight towards me with her arms spread. I had already been attacked by one girl today and I wasn't about to get trampled a second time. I held my hands up defensively and stepped to the right to avoid her right as she tried to give me a hug.

"Um, I'm actually here for…" I scratched the back of my head and pointed towards Neru with my thumb. Being too close to Miku made feel kind of unsafe, like she was a ticking time bomb, so I went closer to Neru. (And I thought that I might've seen Miku's eye twitch.) It bothered me how Miku knew who I was when she wasn't around to hear me say it.

"Did she ask you for my name?" I whispered to Neru behind my palm, and as I suspected, whispering wasn't something that she was capable of. She instead answered in her usual volume, which is always louder than a regular speaking voice.

"What? No. And even if she did, I don't remember it."

"Okay, that's great, but how did she-"

"Just _who,_" I was interrupted mid-sentence by the girl in question. She was only now recovering from her failed hug attempt, her mouth contorting into a distasteful and downright creepy smile. "Do you think you are, Len-kun?"

"Uhh…"

"I'll have a nice, long chat with you about this later, sweetie. But Neru-chan and I were in the middle of something just a moment ago, weren't we?"

"That's right," Neru responded in a low voice, blowing her messy bangs out of her face. "You were about to hand over my phone before I knock you out!"

"Hmm... are you sure? Because I distinctly remember something completely different." Miku started to walk around the two of us in a circle, keeping the same distance apart from Neru and I. She tilted her head to the side and poked her own cheek poutingly. "I'm disappointed. Have you already forgotten something so important...?"

"No, I didn't forget. Don't treat me like an idiot." Her words were brimmed with hostility and resentment. "And I'm not doing it. Fuck off."

As for me, I was utterly, completely lost. I had expected this to be a quick exchange that only required me to be an audience and nothing more, but this, whatever "_this"_ was, felt as though it had a lot of context to it that I wasn't aware of, like I'd been thrown into a story that had begun long before I was involved. These two girls, Neru and Miku, they clearly hadn't just met today, and this meeting had more meaning to it than just retrieving Neru's phone.

And I had really, really, _really_ screwed up in agreeing to come here.

"Tut, tut, tut, Neru-chan. You're really going to regret that decision in minute. I did give you several opportunities to do as I said, and yet…" She sighed. "Oh, well. It can't be helped with you, can it? Boys? Bring our guest of honor out!" Miku clapped and whistled as some sort of signal for her… boys? I didn't like the implications something like that had. Neru, on the other hand, seemed more concerned about this "guest of honor" she was referring to.

This is the part where you're probably going to start doubting the truthfulness of my testimony, so let me just reiterate that everything I'm telling you is 100% fact. Kagamine Len does _not_ lie, I swear.

So then… a bunch of grown men in glaring pink bikinis of questionable sizes emerged from the health room.

"Tadaaa! What do you think? It's my new swimsuit clothing line for men! I'm thinking of selling the idea to a fashion department! In times like these, sometimes you just have to take the initiative in the business world, you know?"

"You… didn't…" I looked at Neru. Her eyes were wide and her body was frozen in place. A guy from the back shuffled forward through the group of men, gripping a tall girl with long white hair and reddish eyes by her arms. Immediately, I recognized who she was.

"Haku!" Neru suddenly sprinted forward as she shouted the girl's name. Haku looked up and smiled hopefully at first, but then her expression turned more fearful.

"Neru-san, look! B… behind you!"

"What?" Just as Neru was turning her head, Miku's fist slammed into her right cheek and knocked her off her feet. Her body flew to the side as she skidded across the grass before coming to a stop. She had gone so fast and swiftly that I hadn't even seen her move.

"Hey!" I shouted after them. I knew better than to blindly run into this like Neru, but I also couldn't just watch and let this go on. Haku was struggling and crying and yelling her friend's name while Neru could barely keep up with Miku; she was like some sort of fighting ballerina.

"Ah, how could I forget about you, Len-kun? Would one of you guys take care of him for me? I think I want to keep him around for a little longer." She chimed as she easily avoided Neru's punch. A few of the men nodded and three advanced towards me in their hot pink bikinis. I took a step back, holding up my hands flat in a standard aikido position. In my four years of aikido training I've never actually needed to use it to defend myself, and I wasn't all that eager to try it out, either.

The first one rushed towards me with his fist extended and headed for my face. I waited until he was close enough to grab hold of his wrist, then pulled him forward and jabbed him in the stomach. As he coughed and doubled over, another caught my forearm from behind. I elbowed him as hard as I could in what felt like his lower rib cage. He roared in pain, clutching his ribs with one of his arms and falling to his knees. A third appeared next to me, unmoving and attentive. I narrowed my eyes; he wanted me to make the first move, but I knew better. He was the one that got tired of waiting and finally went for my face in a mad barrage of punches, one ceaselessly after the other. I blocked most of them by shielding my face with my arms, wincing as they left marks on my skin. I've only ever practiced against kids around my own age and height, which made fighting these taller, older, and stronger men more difficult. (And the bikinis we're enough of a distraction to mess up my footing, too.) I could hear Neru still going at it with Miku, but didn't exactly have time to spare looking at her.

In the midst of all of this, one of the men in a swimsuit peeked his head out from behind a corner and called out. "Hatsune-sama, do you know this girl?" I was too preoccupied to even glance at the guy or the girl he supposedly had with him.

"Ugh, what girl? Can't you see that I'm a little - whoopsie!" She exclaimed and nearly fell over trying to dodge a punch from Neru. "Can't you see that I'm a little busy here?"

"Oh…" The oaf looked down, dejected. "Alright, get out a' here, missy." He shoved the girl forward, a brief shriek emitting from her as she landed on the grass roughly.

It took me only a second to recognize her voice.

"_Rin?!_" I slammed my shoe down on my opponent's bare foot and pushed him onto the ground with newfound adrenaline. She lifted her face from the grass and looked up at me, tear lines dirtied with earth glistening in the afternoon light on her cheeks. "Len…" She sniffed.

"Idiot! Why did you follow me h-" I was cut off by a fist plowing into my the side of my face, so distracted by my own sister's appearance in this mess that I'd forgotten all about the guys who were still after me. Rin screamed and cried out my name as I powerlessly thumped to the ground. The three men that had attacked me were all up and moving again, two of them lifting me up by my arms and pulling them behind me. The third took advantage of my position and punched me in the stomach once, twice, before looking to Miku for further instruction. I coughed and inhaled sharply on impact, gasping for air desperately. It felt like a vacuum had sucked all of the oxygen out of my lungs instantly and left me completely helpless to breathe. I had finally realized what it really meant to have the wind knocked out of you.

"All finished, boys?" Miku rose from the ground, swiping her hands across each other as if wiping off something dirty. Neru laid unmoving, sprawled out across the grass like a discarded marionette. My vision was blurry, but I could still see her chest rising and falling; hopefully, she was just unconscious. Haku was sobbing from behind, muttering Neru's name quietly and desperately.

"Alrighty, then! Let's get going. Bring Haku-chan, and… what did you say her name was, Len-kun? Rin-chan! Bring her along with us, too."

"No!" I forced myself shout at her, my voice strained from the pain in my stomach. "Just what is this all about? What do you want my sister for?"

She laughed. "Isn't that a funny question? I don't really feel like explaining all of it right now, though. Maybe Neru-chan can help you out! That is, when she decides to wake up." Miku frowned and took a moment to nudge Neru's body cautiously with her shoe. She didn't move. "Maybe I overdid it a little…"

A long black car drove up near Miku with dark windows seconds later. The two men holding my arms back nodded at each other and didn't spare any gentleness when they decided to toss me a few feet backwards onto the concrete. The bruise on the back of my head from Rin's attack earlier hadn't gone down, and it especially didn't when it slammed hard against the ground with the rest of me. I didn't pass out, which was a miracle with the intense aches and pains all over my body. My arms were cut and scraped, my vision was spotty and blurred, and I could barely make out anything I looked at, but I heard Haku crying and Rin shouting after me. There was the sound of car doors closing, an engine revving, wheels moving over gravel and muffled protests and pleads in the air.

And I couldn't do anything about it.

The last thing I heard was Miku's voice shouting as it grew farther and farther away. "See you soon, Len-kun! Neru-chan will explain everything when she wakes up!" It momentarily disappeared until abruptly returning, barely audible. "Almost forgot! Don't try to tell anyone about this! If you do, you'll never see Rin-chan again! Byeeeeee!"

* * *

_AN: Aaaand, there it ends! I actually had quite a bit of difficulty writing this chapter. Writing fight scenes is so tiring, omg. I hope you guys enjoyed it, though! It's not as long as the last one, but I didn't want to be too overwhelming. Till next time, later! (Don't be afraid to leave a review, too!)_


	3. Her Name Is

_A/N: I don't have much to say about this one haha. I wrote most of it on my phone as I was falling asleep, so I don't know if I was completely in the write mind when I was working on it. Writing in first person takes a longer time than it does for me to write in third, I guess. Thanks for reading this far!_

* * *

It took 10, maybe 15 minutes for me to get off the ground.

Most of that time was spent waiting for the pain all over to my body to subside (and it never really did). The rest of it, I just needed to sit there in awe and stare into space and ask myself if any of that was real. With the extreme absurdity and randomness of it, chances were that it -wasn't- real and I had just been dreaming. I'd wake up any second from this nightmare and take a shower, brush my teeth, make breakfast for Rin and I like any other day of the week. Maybe I'd been dreaming this entire time and haven't even had my first day of school yet, I was oversleeping and needed to wake up before Rin attacks me. I shook my head, ruffled my hair, even pinched my cheek just to see if I could make myself come out of this already. Nothing worked. Eventually, I was forced to come to the conclusion that every bit of what had just happened was real. Including my sister getting kidnapped by a maniac and her band of male swimsuit models.

I'm normally a sensible guy who can think rationally in bad situations, but I didn't do a great job of showing that by punching a nearby tree as hard as my weakened body would let me; it hurt and left splinters.

At the least, it was enough to clear the fogginess in my head and allow me to really think about what to do next. My first instinct was to call the police, to get them over here as fast as possible and chase after Miku before she was too far away to be found, but I remembered that this was a hostage situation. I had no idea what that girl was capable of, and I didn't want to take any risks and find out. She had even said something about that, I think.

…

"_See you soon, Len-kun! Neru-chan will explain everything when she wakes up!" It momentarily disappeared until abruptly returning, barely audible. "Almost forgot! Don't try to tell anyone about this! If you do, you'll never see Rin-chan again! Byeeeeee!"_

…

… Yeah. I wasn't going to place any bets on her word.

But that first part was important. Neru, she should be able to tell me what I needed to know before taking any sort of action. I stood up almost painlessly, grateful that the only injury to my legs were a few scrapes, and looked over at her, still laying on the ground a few feet away. I did feel _a little_ bad seeing her like that, but not that much. This girl had gotten my sister and I involved in this mess just for a phone and put Rin's safety at risk. No, she probably knew that this would be about more than just her phone, right? Obviously, she and Miku had been at each other's throats for a while now. If Neru had even the slightest suspicion that this would involve violence, then it was wrong of her to force me to come. Still, I knew that pointing fingers wouldn't help anyone do anything, so a few seconds later, I sighed very, very loudly, tiredly, and approached her.

I surveyed the visible parts of her body and didn't see anything serious; she must have just passed out from pain or gotten knocked unconscious somehow.

"... Akita...?" I bent down to her level and shook her shoulder. She was breathing, but still unresponsive. "Akita! Hey! You can't stay like this forever!"

I continued trying to wake her up for a few minutes longer until I decided that it was a vain effort and a waste of time. Nothing I could do, alone and lacking any experience with this sort of thing, would be able to wake her up just yet. It frustrated me more than anything that I _needed_ her to get my sister back when I had no idea who she was. How could I be sure that she wasn't a total maniac like that other girl, or even worse? What if she refuses to tell me anything about this situation? From what I'd seen of her, she wasn't exactly the most pleasant person to be around.

I exhaled exhaustedly, knowing that I didn't have the luxury to spend time worrying about all of that. What I needed to do was figure out a way to get Rin back in the quickest, safest way possible, and the first step towards that was working with Neru, no matter how much I didn't want to. I shoved my doubts and irresolution down my throat and decisively reached for the unmoving girl in front of me.

…

Carrying an unconscious girl bridal-style on the bus whilst covered in cuts and scrapes wasn't easy to explain to the driver. She was a girl this time, not the same one who had gotten into an argument with Rin, and she was pretty wary of me as I showed her my bus pass. I was worried that she wouldn't let me on since my pass only covers one person, but she just continued to eye me suspiciously for a while longer before waving me off without asking any questions.

There were more people on the bus than there were this morning, and the crowd was completely different. I saw a sleeping man on the floor in dirty brown clothing, several women in revealing clothes smoking cigarettes, an old man conspicuously staring at said women, and a cluster of boys that looked a bit older than me doing something furtively in the back corner. The rest appeared to be normal people, scattered across the bus in different places.

Neru wasn't heavy, but I knew that if I stood by and grabbed one of the unoccupied poles, I wouldn't be able to carry her with just one arm. My only other option was one of the seats, and though they were scratched up and probably hadn't been cleaned in several years, I was lucky enough to have the sweater that I'd put on still tied around my waist. It felt safe enough to sit down, even if I would need to burn it the second I got home. Neru, on the other hand, was less fortunate; the seat to our right where her legs were was empty, her waist and mid-section rested in my lap, but her hair fell on the dirty floor and her head inches away from the creepy old man I mentioned before. He glanced at her for a second, I raised an eyebrow, but he quickly grimaced and looked away.

It was almost worrying how none of the people to later arrive on the bus said anything to me. The worst were unfriendly stares and everyone eventually minded their own business, playing games on their phones, reading, or staring out the window. It was convenient for me, but should adults really be so unconcerned? I made a mental note to never let Rin ride this bus by herself.

... Except that she already did. When she followed me to school and got kidnapped by a psycho.

I cursed quietly enough for only me to hear and bit my lip. Rin. I let her get taken away so easily and helplessly. This wasn't funny or something to take lightly at all. My sister was being held hostage right at that moment, terrified, surrounded by suspicious people that she knew nothing about, with even less of an understanding of the situation than me. I don't know what they're going to do and neither does she. What if... something had already happened to her?

I froze in my seat, making a conscious effort to breathe. Everybody's dirty looks suddenly were utterly insignificant, I chided myself for worrying about it earlier when my sister was busy worrying for her life. I felt panicky, clutching Neru's shoulder and the back of her knee where my arms were still hooked underneath. My eyes fell on her face, the ground, glaring, frustrated, paranoid.

I forced myself to calm down soon enough, reasoning that they wouldn't let anything terrible happen to her for now. The hostages are their only leverage over me, so no matter what their goal is, they can't get rid of Rin. I breathed out slowly; it wasn't much better, but it served as a moment's relief. Chances were in my favor that my sister was okay, and the first thing I needed to do was cooperate with Neru once she woke up and figure all of this out.

... She _would_ cooperate with me, right? No, she doesn't have a choice. I remembered that someone else had gotten taken along with Rin, the girl from the bus with the white hair. Haku, she's a friend of Neru's, so there's no way that she wouldn't do anything about this. I should've felt more relieved knowing that someone else was with my sister, but from the little I'd seen of Haku... she wouldn't be the most supportive or reassuring company. I groaned and leaned my head back against the window.

...

I set Neru down on our couch in front of the TV. The bus ride had taken a few over an hour, which is why I had no idea why she hadn't woken up yet. Looking at the clock I saw that it was 8:56 PM, my dad wouldn't be back for another three hours. How could I possibly explain this to him? He'll either not take me seriously or panic and call the police. _I _wanted to call the police, but I didn't want to endanger Rin. It was annoying, not being able to get help or do anything at all until Neru regained consciousness.

At around 9:30, I was impatient and irritated. My major cuts were disinfected and bandaged, I took a shower and wore clean clothes, I ate a ramen, I paced around the room ceaselessly in deep thought. No matter how long I waited, Neru wouldn't wake up. She couldn't have been dead, I checked her more than once and didn't see anything wrong. She was practically in better shape than I was. What else could have caused her to be knocked out for so long?

An idea suddenly popped into my head. It was impractical and very impolite to do to a girl, but I couldn't stand waiting anymore. I rose, scooping up Neru bridal-style again and carried her upstairs. Like I said before, it was no problem, she didn't weigh a thing. With both my arms busy, I had to kick the door in front of me open in order to carry her into Rin's bathroom. (One of the reasons why dad chose this house was because it had three different bathrooms, which was great - we wouldn't need to wait half an hour for Rin to get out of the shower anymore.)

So then I laid Neru down in the bath, silently apologized to her, and turned on the water to the coldest temperature it could go.

It only took a few minutes for her to wake up and start screeching like a pterodactyl from Jurassic Park. I turned off the water triumphantly, wondering why I didn't do this earlier, and leaned against the wall as I waited for her to stop freaking out. Call me evil or childish, but seeing her like that was just a little satisfying for payback, seeing as how she forced me to seemingly get her phone back when it was about something entirely different, which could've gotten me kidnapped in Rin's place if she hadn't followed me there. Did I feel guilty or unreasonable for being mad at her? Nah.

"Wh-what... the hell…" Neru stuttered, disoriented, weakly gripping the shower curtain to pull herself up from the ground. Her limbs moved languidly, trembling and shivering as if she was in physical pain. So then, yeah, I felt a little guilty for doing that to a girl, even if it was necessary. I came closer and reached out my hand for her to take. Her already sloppy bangs fell over her face and covered her eyes like a wet mop. She took my hand.

I started to apologize, "... Sorry about that, Akita. I—"

"Creep!" She pulled my wrist with gorilla-like strength and sent me sprawling behind her. As I cried out upon colliding with the wall, she slowly stepped out of the bath, but stumbled on the slippery ground and fell ungracefully. I called out after her, cursing myself for not being able to foresee this.

"Akita! Agh…" I hissed and winced from the sharp pain in my back. "This is _really_ not what it seems like! I'm K—hey!" I dodged a flying hair dryer and an empty shampoo bottle. Common bathroom object after the other came hurtling in my direction until there were none left, most of them hitting me directly in the face. Luckily, nothing was as harmful as Rin's dryer.

But it was pretty _unlucky_ that once it stopped, Neru was no longer in the room.

"... Damn it, Akita!" I swore, just about fed up with this entire situation. Cautious not to slip on the floor, I suppressed my frustration and ran after her.

Turned out there was no need to rush. I followed the trail of water she left and shortly found her halfway down the staircase; she appeared to be struggling with each step as if she was in desperate need of a cane. The second Neru noticed I was behind her she picked up the pace, albeit unsteadily and still kind of slow. I hurried down the steps and caught her by the arm at the base.

"Would you relax for just a second, please?! We're wasting time! I'm not going to"—I caught her wrist as a second fist flew at me—"I'm not _trying_ to hurt you! It's me, Kagamine Len! From school!"

I could hear her heavy and short breaths start to calm. Wrenching her hands out of my grip, she pushed away the hair covering her eyes and squinted.

"... K... Kagamine. From sch-school."

"Yes!" I answered immediately and impatiently. "From school! We just met today after that blue-haired girl took your phone, which is why I need you to tell me right now wh—"

"HAKU!" Her facial expression shifted from mild confusion to fear and shock. "_Shitshitshitshitshitshit_, I h-have to get her!" In an instant, she stumbled away from the stairs and headed towards the door.

"Where the hell are you going now?! Wait!"

...

I had to chase Neru again for about 10 minutes before she passed out on the ground outside. Neither of us had gotten very far; both of us were wet and running around at 10:07 at night. I hadn't been wearing any shoes as a bonus, while Neru was slow to begin with. When I had caught up to her, she was unconscious on somebody's lawn. (I prayed that this wouldn't leave a bad impression on our new neighbors.) Her skin was colder than mine, but her forehead was warmer than the rest of her body. A fever. Carrying her back felt like holding a corpse, she barely moved at all, even her breathing was subtler than normal. I hurried back to my house to get out of the freezing night air.

Neru was laid down on the couch again with a little cold towel on her forehead and a blanket. She was still wearing her wet clothes, but... _I_ definitely wasn't going to change her out of them. I changed out of my clothes again and sat across from her, waiting, thinking. Not really doing anything. What else could I do? I'm not a doctor, and I couldn't call or take her to a doctor. In reality, it wasn't any further than where I was 40 minutes ago. I hadn't progressed towards getting my sister back whatsoever since she was kidnapped and I had no idea what to do.

I got out of my chair, picked up our house phone and called the police.

A feminine voice answered. "Sorairo County Police speaking, what is your emergency?"

"I... I'm reporting a kidnapping of two girls, both 1st year high school students."

"Who are we speaking to?"

"Kagamine Len. I'm also a 1st year."

"Where are you?"

"Uhh..." I smacked my forehead for not knowing our address yet. "I-I don't know, I'm sorry. My family is new to Sorairo and I don't know the street name exactly. Hitabarashi something."

"That is not a problem, we can track you by the phone you're using, but it will take longer to get to you. Are you outside?"

"No, I'm in my house. The number is 1227."

"We will be there in 25 minutes or less. Can you tell us anything more about the kidnapping?"

"The girls that were taken... one of them was my sister. She's blonde, blue eyes, she has a white bow in her hair and she was wearing a sleeveless white shirt and gray shorts. Her hair is a little less than shoulder-length and... I think her shoes were orange. Her name is Rin." I accidentally might have rambled and wondered if the lady was still listening.

"Is that all?"

"No, the other girl's name is Haku, I don't know her last name. She's tall with maroonish eyes and her hair is white and really long. I don't remember what she was wearing."

"Were you a witness to the kidnapping?"

"Yeah, I was there when it happened about..." My eyes wandered over to the clock. "... Three hours ago."

"Did you see who took them?"

"Uhh... Her name is Miku. She has blue—"

"What did you say her name was?"

"... I said Miku. She has long blue hair in pigtails, blue eyes, I think she might be a 2nd year. She was wearing a—"

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP._

"... Hello?" I waited for a few seconds in puzzlement for a response. We were talking just fine and then suddenly... it stopped working. I looked at the phone screen.

_CALL ENDED_


	4. Neru Tells All

"... Pft. As if that would have worked..." Neru's strained voice just barely poured out from behind me. I turned around and looked at her, the unresponsive phone still in my hand. Her eyes were dim and only slightly open, tilting her head in the direction away from me as if to deliberately avoid eye contact.

"... What's that supposed to mean?" I sat in front of her again and put the phone down, hiding my relief that I wouldn't have to wait three more hours for her to start talking again. I don't think I've ever been more frustrated with a person in my life, not even Rin.

She didn't say anything back. I waited.

"... You know, I've spent most of my time since they were taken waiting for you to wake up. The least you could do is talk, because I'm completely in the dark and I have no idea what the hell is going on."

She shifted around under the blanket and muttered, "... Sorry, I guess."

That had taken me aback a little. I don't know what I had expected her to say, but it definitely wasn't an apology. I sighed. "Look, it's fine," though it really wasn't. "But can you please just tell me everything? Why did that girl take my sister? Where are they now? What is she going to do with her?" There were a million questions that I wanted to ask her, but I decided to take it slow since it was clear that she wasn't really in the right mind.

"... I don't know why Miku bothered taking her when she already had Haku. She's never gone this far before..." She trailed off and left the sentence hanging. "She's probably taking them to her house... waiting for me to give her what she wants."

"Which is...?" I leaned in.

"..." She turned on her side so that her back faced me.

"Akita, please. I need to know everything." I urged her, hoping that this wasn't about drugs or money and my sister and I hadn't gotten caught up in some gang war.

Seconds that felt like days passed before she answered. Her voice was unnaturally soft and quiet. "... My mom. She wants my mom."

Then it was my turn to be silent. Was mom some sort of code or acronym? She couldn't have possibly meant "mom" as in "mother," that didn't make any sense. "She wants... your mom." I repeated slowly and carefully, like the word was a bomb trigger. "As in... a mom."

"Yes, yes, that's what I said! Do your ears even work?" She snapped. I assumed that she didn't like talking about it.

"So what you're telling me is..." I propped my elbows on my lap and held my chin with my fingers like a fascinated professor. "That girl kidnapped two people... because she wants your mom."

"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot! I know what I said!" Neru threw the blanket on the floor and stared at me with annoyance. "What, you think I'm _lying_?"

"Well... I definitely don't think that you're telling me the truth, so." I shrugged.

Her face grew red. "Why the hell would I lie about something like this? I'm not laughing!"

"Okay, okay, relax, but... you don't just 'give' someone your mom. You probably misheard her or something."

"Just shut up! I know exactly what she said, she's been pestering me about it forever!"

"What would she even want with your mom?"

"To hell if I know! I don't know how that freak thinks." She folded her arms stubbornly and looked away from me.

"Alright, I'll try to believe you, it's just..." I pinched the bridge of my nose and held my head down. "So in order to get Rin and your friend back, we have to... give her your mom. Is that all?"

"There is _no_ way I'm letting my mom anywhere near that psycho. Never." Neru had spoken lowly in contrast to the angry and excessively loud way she had been before. She was serious.

I held my face in my hands hopelessly. This conversation was pointless and unprogressive. "Okay, so you won't give her your mom. How else are we supposed to get my sister back?"

"Easy. I'll march right up to her door and beat her up until she gives them back." Her tone was confident and carefree, like she had no doubts whatsoever.

I lifted my face from my hands very, very, slowly and gave her an utterly dumbfounded look. "_That's_ your plan? Really? You're sick. She has who knows how many bodyguards that could knock you out even if you weren't sick. You couldn't walk ten feet without passing out. Who do you think would win?"

"I'll figure it out as I go!"

"I don't think you realize that this is my _sister_ in danger here!" All of my leftover patience flew out the window. I balled up my fists and stood over her. "Are you even taking this seriously?! Rin was kidnapped because you selfishly forced me to come with you to get your phone!"

"I _said_ I'll bring her back!" She argued.

"And you want me to just—you want me to just take your word for it? Seriously? I don't know anymore about you than your name! Do you expect me to let you handle this and entrust the safe return of my sister to you when your plan is as unreliable as _'I'll figure it out?'_"

"Do you have any other _choice?_" Neru shot up from her seat and slammed her hands on the table, glowering at me with vexation. "Huh? I'm not the one you should be telling off, Kagamine! What are you gonna get out of yelling at me and doubting me when I'm the only one who can do this?"

... I didn't really know what to say to that. She was right that I shouldn't have directed my anger towards her when she was, more or less, on my side. If I wanted to see Rin again anytime soon, I had to cooperate with her and figure this out, even if working with her was hard and she was out of her mind.

Silence settled in the room for a minute as both of us calmed ourselves. She sat down and rested her chin in her palm, her eyes purposefully away from mine like before. "I know that this is _kind of_ my fault for getting your sister kidnapped by Miku, and I'll get her back."

I just shook my head. "No, you can't. You can tell me not to doubt you, but you will definitely not win against her or her guards in a fight while you're sick like this. You need a better plan than that."

She blew hair out of her face. "... Fine. But that leaves me out of ideas. What do you have, Mr. Strategist?"

I sat and began to think. "I'm wondering... if all that girl wants is your mom, then, no offense, why didn't she just take her directly instead of holding hostages?"

"I dunno." She said absentmindedly, holding her chin up in her palm. "Maybe she doesn't like my house."

"... Or, maybe she _can't_ go to your house. Has she ever been there before?"

"Yeah, but that was over four years ago. She hates me now and hasn't gone there since." She glanced at me and narrowed her eyes. "... Why, what're you thinking?"

"I'm not sure... but I think this is important. It would've saved her a lot of trouble to have just taken your mom forcibly, so there should be a definite reason why she didn't." I felt like I was really on to something, but I couldn't quite grasp an answer.

Neru thought otherwise. "Is this _really_ as important as you make it out to be?" She combed through her wet hair. "She's no genius, she could've just not thought of it. Miku hates my guts, I bet that freak wanted to kidnap Haku to torture me more."

"I don't think so..." I waved it off. "Nevermind. So my sister and your friend are at that girl's house right now, plus it seems like the police won't be able to help us for some reason."

"Pft. Of course they wouldn't." She said nonchalantly, puffing out air from her cheeks.

"You said that before already. Are you implying there's a reason why?"

"Obviously! It's _Miku_ we're dealing with. As in _Hatsune_ Miku." She enunciated "Hatsune" loudly and clearly like it was supposed to make me understand better. It didn't.

The lack of understanding on my face must have been evident, because Neru stared at me in disbelief. "Have you seriously never heard of Yamaha Corporations?"

"Of course I have, it's probably one of the biggest music conglomerates in the world. My dad works for one of their subdivisions up in Negibatake. I just don't get what that has to do with anything."

"Miku's dad _owns_ the damn thing! God, you're dense." She rolled her eyes and sank into the couch. "She's practically a princess. She's loaded _and_ powerful _and_ an evil spoiled brat. I'm not surprised at all that she bribed the police to do what she wants. People'll do anything for money."

I didn't really believe her at first, because like a lot of things going on, it didn't make sense. I'd never heard anything shady about Yamaha before. It's a generous company that's always on the news about how they donate tons of yen to charities all over the world, my dad had even told me that they treat their employees really well. How could a girl that kidnapped two people and held them hostage be related to a company like that?

"If that's true, then… they can't be in any _serious_ danger, right?" I announced hopefully, straightening out my slouch. "I mean, this is Yamaha. If they did anything terrible, it'd be everywhere."

"And I thought I was simple-minded. This isn't _Yamaha's_ doing, it's _Miku's_. I've met Miku's dad, he's not totally deranged like she is. I bet the guy doesn't even know anything about what she's done." She stopped speaking for a while, a blank expression on her face. "And even if they were behind this, they could just throw a few yen in anyone's face and cover it up easily. Miku already did that with the police. God, you're innocent. You don't know anything about the real world, do you?"

'_Better to lack street smarts than common sense,_' I thought, but chose not to say. We were finally being serious and I didn't want us to derail with another pointless argument. "Okay, so they're in danger either way. You know more about Hatsune than I do. Just _who_ is she exactly? Why does she hate you so much? Just tell me everything, I might be able to figure something out by knowing the whole story."

Neru frowned, as unresponsive as she had been when she was unconscious. She stared at her hands, which changed to fists, which sprawled openly again, focusing on the cuts with morbid curiosity. Her eyelids were half-closed and her eyebrows low in a stern, serious, contemplating expression.

"Miku and I were close friends a few years back, even before I met Haku. She never acted as psychotic as she does now back then. I thought of her like the sister I never had. Then one day, I invited her over to my house for the first time and, I don't know, she had a mental breakdown or something. She's been harassing me in and out of school ever since and I still don't know why, it doesn't make sense.

"For the past few months, she's been asking me about my mom, trying to invite us over for dinner or whatever. I always said no, obviously, because it's weird as hell for her to just start being nice out of nowhere. But Miku only started getting violent today, like in school earlier. How was I supposed to know that she would kidnap Haku and your sister just for this? I didn't think she was serious about it! And now that I know she is, I don't have a clue why. I mean, they've never seen each other before, not even once! I don't get why she's doing this to me when I've _never_ done anything wrong to her!" Her tone changed from stony and solemn to outraged and confused, her features contorting in a weird way as if trying to convey a sort of "_Can you believe that? It's ridiculous!_" feeling.

That wasn't the explanation I had been preparing myself for. Compared to the wild things I'd been imagining, like a business war or a government-stock-market-economy-secret-code kind of thing, this was… tame. Just a dispute between childhood friends that had seriously gotten out of hand, in a nutshell. I would've felt relieved if I hadn't remembered that we still hadn't figured out a way to get Rin and Neru's friend back.

"So if that's the case," I began. "Then is it really… _really_ such a terrible thing to just do what she wants?"

"You mean you actually want me to give her my mom?!" She slammed her fist on the armrest. "Just whose side are you on, Kagamine?"

"Hey, relax! I'm just saying. It's not like Hatsune is asking you to literally _give_ her your mom. What's she gonna do, keep her? Maybe she just wants to talk or something."

"Yeah, right, because abducting other people is a normal thing to do when you just wanna talk." Neru rolled her eyes. "Are you some kind of idiot? I already said Miku and my mom have _never_ met before. What's there for them to talk about? Huh? Plus, Miku knows my house number. If she wanted to, she could've just called and spoken to her a long time ago."

"Okay, okay, I'll admit that there may be a bigger reason than that. But if you're really not gonna do what she says, then what're we going to do? Break into her house and take them back by force? We may as well just—"

"That's it!" She shouted in that unreasonably loud voice of hers. There was a glimmer in her hazel-yellowish eyes as they darted towards me excitedly, her grin thoughtful and mischievous with her finger pointed in my direction. "That's _exactly_ what we have to do!"

"What?" I blinked. "What, you have an idea? A practical, rational, doable idea that'll undoubtedly work?"

"You just said it!" Neru exclaimed hurriedly. "You _just_ said it! We're gonna sneak into that psycho's house and bring Haku and your sister back!"

If I was smiling or cheerful before, it faltered. I don't know why I'd gotten my hopes up. "Please tell me you're not serious, Akita. Now isn't the time to be joking around."

"I'm not joking! Didn't you say that barging in wouldn't work?"

"And breaking into her house is better?"

"Just _listen_ to me for a second! God." Her voice sounded more impatient than angry or annoyed, so I shut up. She spoke quickly. "Getting in'll be easy. When we were kids, Miku and I weren't allowed to have sleepovers, so we figured out a way for me to get into her room at night and sneak out in the morning. There's a blindspot between the security cameras with—"

"_Security cameras?_"

"Be quiet!" She snapped. "I'm not finished. So here's this blindspot between the security cameras that doesn't have any guards near it. In that space there's a bunch of bricks stacked above each other to cover up a vent Miku unscrewed for me. Using that, we'll get in—"

"I'm gonna cut you off again, because there's no point in letting you fully explain something that I'm not going to do." I crossed my arms and leaned back into my chair. "Don't you know that breaking and entering is illegal? As in we'll get arrested and sent to _jail_. We'll have that stuck on our permanent records for the rest of our lives."

"Don't you know that breaking and entering is illegal? We'll get arrested and sent to jail." She mimicked me in a nasally high-pitched voice with her tongue sticking out. "Blah, blah, blah. All I heard is 'I'm Kagamine Len and I'm a goody two-shoes coward baby.' Get over it! You say it like we're gonna die or something. If you're too worried for your precious permanent record, then I'll do it myself."

I dug deep, deep inside of my patience reserves and salvaged what was left of it. "But you literally and physically _can't_ do that because you're not well enough to go anywhere. And even if you were, there's no guarantee that that vent you were talking about will still be there. Hasn't it been years since you last used it?"

"It's _got_ to be there. Miku's probably forgotten all about it. And what do you even mean, 'I'm not well enough?' I'm as fine as I'll ever be. I'll go and get those two back on my own feet right now!"

"Really," I said doubtfully. "Then try walking to the door right now. If you can do that, we'll go through with your plan. "

"Fine! Just watch me." Neru flipped her hair (that was still wet and splattered water all over me) and stood up. I watched her start off walking pretty well, until after she tripped over something non-existent and fell on her face. I was about to help her up, but she managed to do it on her own after half a minute of whispery swears. She sluggishly proceeded towards the door once again, her features very visibly strained and exhaustion from less than two minutes of movement.

"...Akita, you know that I wasn't really serious. There's no need for you do to that."

"H… ha!" She snorted. "So now that I'm... s-so close to proving you... wrong... you're going back on your word, is that it?"

"I didn't make you a promise or anything, it was a joke. Whether you actually get there or not, I'm not breaking into someone's house. It's _illegal_."

"So is… fucking… kidnapping people!" Neru's limbs trembled as her shaky hands wrapped around the doorknob. "I don't see any other way out of this... than to take them back by force! Unless you have any other bright... ideas... then my way... is the _only_ way... Kagamine..." Her speech slurred from fatigue, the intervals in which she paused to catch her breath increasing in length and frequency.

I'd never seen a person with a fever look as bad as she did before, but didn't show any common symptoms like coughing or the chills. As far as I could tell, all that was wrong with her was the severe exhaustion that came after moving too much. Then I thought... what if it's something else? Something worse? Something connected this? I had some indefinable feeling, more than just intuition, that it might just be of some value to think about, just like when I brought up the thing about Hatsune purposefully not going to Neru's house.

I thought back to the time I last saw Neru look okay. That was during school, when I walked in on hers and Hatsune's argument. She didn't seem sick at all and she was able to keep up with Hatsune pretty well, even if marginally outmatched. The next time I saw her, Neru had blatantly performed worse than before. I didn't know exactly how quickly since I'd been distracted in my own fight at the time, but it didn't look like Hatsune had had any difficulty taking Neru down without any interference from her guards. That could only mean... something had happened to her in the time from her first fight with Hatsune to the second. I rewinded the entire scene in my head, thinking as hard as I possibly could, picking out every detail in my memory, nearing an answer...

"That's it!"

* * *

_A/N: Uhh so! This wasn't really a difficult chapter to write haha. I guess I'd say my favorite emotion to write Len in is frustration, and there's going to be plenty more of that as the story progresses. Speaking of Len, you might be wondering why he's so good at figuring this stuff out when he was described in CH1 as average and not all that smart. That was mostly Len just putting himself down, and he's actually a pretty shrewd and mature kid for his age. As for the answer to the reason why Neru suddenly got so sick... you should be able to figure it out by rereading CH1 and CH2! Thanks for supporting me and reading this far!_


	5. Making A Move

"Wh... what... are you... talking about?" Neru panted and slid down against the door.

"Do you remember the first time you fought with Hatsune? Back at school?"

"Why are you... bringing that up now..." She yawned.

"And the second time you both fought, do you remember how different it was compared to the first?"

"... Different...?"

"As in, you barely put up a fight against Hatsune. No offense, but you were a lot worse there than you were before."

Her head languidly lolled over in my direction and her eyes narrowed. "You trying to... pick a fight with me, Kagamine?"

"No, no. You know it yourself, Akita. It was unnatural how easily you were beaten when you could keep up with Hatsune earlier. Didn't you notice it, too?"

"... What's your point?" She was beginning to catch her breath, but she looked confused and conflicted over whether I'd just insulted or complimented her.

"The point is that something changed about you during the time between the fights. You could tell that you were a lot slower than you normally are, right? And even now, after sleeping for hours, you look exhausted. Don't you think that's weird?"

Neru shifted around where she sat on the floor. She seemed uncomfortable talking about herself, especially about her failure to beat Hatsune. It occurred to me that I might've been acting insensitive, and though I could empathize, I also felt that it could lead us to something important if we talked more.

She straightened her posture. "I don't exactly... remember everything that happened back there. I felt tired for some reason... and I don't remember even getting knocked out. I just blacked out for however long and woke up... in _your_ bathroom."

"There was a good reason for that," I interjected, suddenly feeling defensive. "I wasn't—"

"Save it." She held up her hand to cut me off. "Haku and I got picked up by my mom when school ended and drove us home. I didn't feel tired until the time I met with Miku again, and you know more about what happened after that than I do. I didn't do anything to make me so tired after fighting her."

I shook my head. "That's because nothing weird happened to you _after_ the first fight. It was _during _the first fight."

"What?" She blinked. "Would you stop acting so damn mysterious and just be straightforward for once?"

"Alright, alright. The reason you lost against Hatsune was because you didn't get a fair fight. You were _drugged_, Akita."

She stared at me like I was crazy. "I was _what_?"

"Doesn't it explain everything?" I got out of my seat to give Neru a hand up. She looked like she wanted to argue, to say that she didn't need my help and could get up on her own, but she just turned her eyes away from me and begrudgingly accepted it. "Why you lost so easily, why you were asleep for so long, why you're tired even now after sleeping for so long."

"Wh…" She slapped my hand away as soon as she was standing steadily and leaned against the door. "_Drugged_? How could I have been drugged in the middle of a fight?"

"Easier than you'd think. Don't you remember my handkerchief?"

* * *

_From there, it happened so quickly that I didn't get a chance to react. The blue-haired girl shot up from the ground and stuffed my handkerchief in Neru's mouth. She dropped her phone in surprise, but almost immediately grabbed the other girl by the wrist and hurled her backwards. _

* * *

"Hatsune didn't do that for nothing. She used that opportunity to force you to take something that would make you tired."

"That's just stupid." She scoffed. "I would've known if there was something being _shoved _down my throat."

"That's not necessarily true, Akita. Think about it. You only saw the _handkerchief_, so that's all you would have expected. Besides, it's not as if you had tons of time to sit and think about it. You needed to react immediately if you didn't want Hatsune to attack you again, and whatever the drug was, she probably would have thought ahead to make it subtle enough for you to not notice."

"But that's…" She began. "How do you know your napkin thing wasn't just dirty or something? I think I saw you and your sister using those on the bus, Kagamine."

"That couldn't be it either." I said. "If the cause were something wrong with my handkerchief, it wouldn't make you pass out for three hours, it would make you sick. You know, like a cold or something caused by germs."

"So you let her shove your used napkin thing in my-"

"But," I cut her off quickly, clearing my throat. "That's besides the point. A handkerchief to the mouth is a pretty weird and out of place move compared to everything else she did. Why not just use it on your eyes to blind you if all she wanted to do was distract you enough to take your phone?

"This is exactly what I mean by Hatsune making things harder for herself on purpose. Taking hostages instead of confronting your mom, drugging you when she probably could've defeated you without it—no offense—, even telling you to bring me along when she could've just kept it between you and her... there has to be a reason for all of it. I just don't know what in the world it could be..." I held my chin in my fingers, frustrated and dispirited. I really had felt that I'd be able to come up with something good and useful, something that'd help us figure out what to do next, and it had amounted to nothing but more answerless questions. "Damn..."

"So... what was the point in bringing all this up again?" She yawned, disinterested.

I stuttered, starting to second-guess myself. "There was... it was definitely worth bringing up, I'm sure, it's just..."

"Great." She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for wasting our time, Detective Kagamine. Anyway, it looks like my plan is still our only chance."

"I'm not breaking into someone's house, Akita. That's not going to work."

_Wait... wasting time...?_

"The time!" My fist slammed so hard onto my palm the sound echoed throughout the room. I grabbed Neru's wrists absentmindedly in a fleet of excitement and held them between the two of us. "That's the reason, Akita! Why Hatsune drugged you!"

She wasn't as excited. "Don't you dare touch me, you-!" Neru tore her arms free of my grip and huffed. "Just _what_ are trying to say, Kagamine?"

"Look, I'll explain later, we're more limited on time than we thought." I picked up a pen from our side table and surveyed the room for a blank paper. "I really, really, _really_ hate to say this, but we may need to go through with your idea after all."

* * *

Cold wind sailed past our ears as wheels turned and pushed further and further down a winding sidewalk. One of Neru's arms were wrapped around my waist (after much resistance), while the other occupied a flashlight to clear a path through the dark of 10:52 PM.

Neru was wearing a hurriedly picked out ensemble of Rin's clothes, since hers were too wet and too thin to wear outside while it was so cold. It had _not_ been a pleasant task, digging through Rin's disorganized drawers with her unmentionables mixed in with her trillions of shorts mixed in with her spare hair bows. Neru was stuck with a very mismatched puffy orange sweater and bright green shorts of just barely knee-length (I don't think Rin owns any normal pants). She looked like a pumpkin.

I'd known better than to leave the place a mess for my dad to find. I put back all of the items Neru had thrown at me in Rin's bathroom where they belonged, I wiped up the water drops resting on the staircase and the surrounding floor from Neru's attempted "escape." Not much could be done about the wet couch she had laid on other than to turn over the cushions. Because I didn't want dad to worry and call the police or do something else unhelpful, I wrote him a note and taped it on the door, which read:

_Dad, _

_Rin and I are at a party that our classmates threw for us. I'll make sure she doesn't cause any problems. If we aren't back by 1 AM, it means we couldn't get a ride home. The address is on the back of the paper. Sorry for not calling._

_-Len_

I knew 1 AM was pushing it, but giving us only an hour to get into Hatsune's house and find the hostages wouldn't be long enough. And instead of just saying that someone's parents would drop us off home, it felt better to have dad as a backup in case we got into trouble. More trouble than we were already in, anyway. I wrote the address to Miku's house that Neru gave me and went for my coat.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't happy about lying to my dad. Lying isn't fun, whether they're little white lies or serious lies like the one I'd just scribbled on a piece of paper. How terrible was it to not tell a man that his own daughter had been kidnapped? I didn't even want to think about the consequences. But it's not as if I had a choice, my hands were tied. What else could we have done when not even the authorities would help us? No, the authorities were _against_ us. Staying clear of them might've been the safest thing for us to do.

After giving Neru two cups of ramen and some tea, we headed out on my bike to Hatsune's house.

* * *

"So... you wanna tell me the big important breakthrough you came up with back there?"

Her voice was loud enough to cut through the whistling air behind us, where we'd been riding in complete silence except for the sound of wheels turning over subtle gravel.

"Oh, that," I'd completely forgotten that I hadn't explained it to Neru yet. "I didn't think you'd care, as long as we went with your idea."

"It's not like I _do_ care or anything..." She shone the flashlight to the left. "But... you may as well tell me now that we have the chance."

"There's no need to pretend you're not curious." I veered the handles in the direction the light went. "If you really want to know, I'll tell you."

"Just who said I was curious? I could figure it out on my own if I wanted to."

I rolled my eyes. "Then why don't you?"

"Fine!" I felt her grip around my waist loosen. "I will."

We were quiet for a while longer.

"Akita, could it be that you're one of those, uhh..." I racked my brain for the term. "... tsundere types?"

"Wha..." She sputtered. "Who the hell are you calling tsundere?!" Her fist slammed onto my back and messed up my balance. We swerved left and right for a few havoc-filled seconds until I regained stability.

"Hey! _I'm_ the one driving here! Don't start hitting me unless you want us both to get a faceful of concrete." I huffed, tightening my grip on the handlebars.

"Then don't go calling me a tsundere like you know me so well, Kagamine!"

"I don't have to know you well to tell that you're impossibly stubborn." I muttered. She didn't hear.

We returned to our routine of her guiding me throughout Sorairo with the flashlight. I didn't know what time it was, but I was starting to feel tired. Pedaling for the weight of two people at a time of day when I'd normally be asleep easily wore me down, and it showed. The only things keeping my eyes open were the occasional winds blowing into them.

"How much farther is Hatsune's house, anyway..." I proposed through a yawn, hoping that talking would help me stay awake.

Neru was slow to respond. "... Still a way's to go..." She sighed. "What did you expect? Someone like Miku wouldn't live around a place like this."

It made sense. I sighed an unmotivated sigh and struggled to keep my head up. "Why would you go all this way just to meet Hatsune for sleepovers...?"

"I dunno." I felt her shrug. "I guess it was worth it back then."

* * *

"My house is coming up. Stop here."

An estimated 40-50 minutes had gone by since leaving my house. In that time, it had become clear that both of us would pass out on the street if we rode much longer. I was relieved enough to hug her when Neru said that we could stop at her house for a break.

She and I both nearly collapsed on the ground getting off my bike. My legs were sore and ached from overuse, hers numb from almost an hour of inactivity. We stumbled our way to the front door down her driveway. Her house had a western look to it, completely white with pink flowers lining every visible window. The roof was arched instead of flat or pointed like most of the houses we'd passed by in the neighborhood, and her yard had dandelions, daisies popping out of the grass. Rectangular hedges with tulips peeking out of them surrounded the border of the house, sectioning it off from other houses. It was smaller than ours, distinctive and pleasant in its own way, but not at all the house I'd expected Neru to have. The way she had accused me of being innocent and a "goody two-shoes," I didn't think she'd have such a... cute, dollhouse-looking home.

Neru reached under the welcome mat on the doorstep and withdrew a key with a cat face chain on it. She opened the door and walked inside. I followed.

Slow piano music rolled into my ears and a flowery aroma filled my nose. Neru dropped her shoes in a convenient square wicker basket by the door. "I'm gonna go put on my own clothes. Leave your shoes there and sit or something." She called out, already disappearing down a hall. I placed my shoes alongside hers in the basket as told and idly leaned against a wall. There was a soft-looking rose-colored sofa not two feet away, but I chose not to sit in spite of my fatigue. I knew that if I relaxed for even one second, I'd fall asleep in an instant.

I kept myself distracted by observing the room. Painting after painting of flowers and scenery hung over maroon walls while potted plants dangled from the ceiling. The shelves held neatly aligned books of varying size and mahogany tables harbored flower vases. An easel stood near a broad window with a half-painted canvas balancing on the foothold.

Curiosity stemmed from boredom made me want to get a closer look at the painting. Someone like Neru probably wouldn't want me observing her house so much, but what damage could be done by looking at some artwork? I shrugged and walked towards it.

I stepped on a body behind the sofa.

Both of us shrieked. I tripped and landed on my back, but hurried to scramble away from it. All sleepiness and grogginess had instantly drained from my body, replaced by fear and panic. Slowly, the figure rose from the glossy hardwood floor, moaning like a ghost. I reached for the vase on a lowtable and raised it above my head, preparing to bring it down on the rising body the second it tried to attack me.

"Oh, geez... I fell asleep on the floor again..."

I stiffened as the sleepy female voice came from the stretching body. Squinting through the dim lighting of the room, I made out a paint-splattered apron and short red hair. The "body" belonged to a woman, who propped herself off of the ground and adjusted her glasses. I realized that this person might be a member of Neru's family, and _I_ was the suspicious stranger in her home at night. I put the vase down.

"Neru-chan, is that you...?" She turned towards me blankly and took a step closer.

"Uhh... no. Sorry." I got off of the ground and sheepishly bowed my head. "I'm... a friend of hers. Something like that."

"Oh!" The woman beamed. "I see! A new friend of Neru-chan's. I'm her mother, it's so nice to meet you!" She clapped excitedly and tried to pat down her messy hair. Excitement and energy was evident on her face instead of suspicion or hostility. She didn't ask me a million questions or force me out of her house, just an earnestly welcoming grin. We stood in silence except for the piano music in the background.

"Erm..." She looked all around the room. "I don't see her anywhere, though..."

"She's... in her room, I think. Changing her clothes."

"Ah... alrighty then."

More uncomfortable silence.

"It looks dark out there... are you staying over for the night?"

"No, I'm waiting for her to come back out." I scratched the back of my head, choosing my words carefully. I had no idea I was _that_ bad at talking to adults. If Rin were there, she would have chatted up a storm within seconds.

Then again, if Rin were there, I wouldn't have been struggling to make conversation in the first place. I stared at the floor.

"Are you okay? You don't look too good." She asked as she took off her apron and hung it on a coat rack.

"... Yeah." I lied. "Sorry."

"Oh, no, don't be sorry. There's nothing to apologize for." She said with a faint smile and shook her head. "Are you sure you're a friend of Neru-chan's? You're so polite."

It took me a while to realize that she was joking. I didn't say anything.

_Why is Akita taking so long..._

"How about some tea and castella?" She offered. "I was just thinking about making some for Neru-chan. It's her favorite, you know? They shouldn't take too long."

_We really don't have the time to waste eating snacks..._ "Sure. Thanks."

"Mhm! No problem." She turned away from me and went to the mini-kitchen in the corner. Not wanting to just continue standing there, I took off my jacket and seated myself on the couch, waiting to see who would finish first, Neru's mother or Neru herself.

Her mom won. The flowery aroma lurking about the room was soon replaced by the permeating scent of castella. She came out from the kitchen holding a silver tray with cups and china on it, then moved around the decorations on the table in front of me and set it down.

Castella was brought over to Japan by European missionaries back in the 16th century. It's a pretty simple dish; a small, soft, usually rectangular vanilla sponge cake with no toppings. That's why I was surprised to see amanatto beans embedded in a black-colored castella being handed to me.

"Is this... burnt, or..." I couldn't help but ask. She laughed.

"Oh, it's not burnt, but I can see why you'd think so." She took a teacup from the tray. "I used black sesame and muscovado sugar to give it that color. Adds texture, too!"

"... Thanks..." I only stared at the dish. I didn't want to eat; I wanted Neru to come back out so we could get moving as soon as possible.

"Not hungry?" She looked up from her tea.

"Sorry. It looks good, but…" My eyes wandered to the clock. "I really need to speak to your daughter. We've got important things to do."

"Say no more, I gotcha." She waved her hand dismissively and placed her teacup on a coaster. "I'll go get her for you, okay? Just sit tight."

I thanked her as she fixed her slightly lopsided glasses and entered the same hallway Neru had disappeared in. It was good that her mother was so easygoing, my dad doesn't take surprises very well and might've attacked Neru with a fire extinguisher if he'd seen her in our house without me there to explain. Kind of similar to when I was going to hit her mom with a vase when I found her sleeping on the floor...

Anyways, it was 12:21 AM then. We had under an hour until my dad drove to Hatsune's house on his own to find only Rin, possibly endangering her even more since I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about this. I was antsy and restless, retying my ponytail again and again while tapping my foot, impatient. Minutes later, her mother returned without Neru. I raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry! I hope you can wait just a little bit longer. You'll have to forgive Neru-chan, she fell asleep in her room half-dressed."

* * *

Neru had finally come out of her room with a backpack after being woken up by her mom. It took 9 minutes for her to finish getting dressed and come up with a good excuse to explain why two kids needed to go out alone at 12:30 at night. She seemed uncomfortable telling a lie to her mom and rushed outside immediately after, leaving me alone with her as I hurried to put on my coat.

A footstep out the doorway, she reached for my shoulder to stop me from leaving again. "One last thing! I almost forgot. You still haven't told me your name!"

"Oh. It's Kagamine Len." I thought she was going to call me out on Neru's lie. "... It was nice meeting you, Aki-"

The teacup she held fell to the ground instantly and shattered against the hardwood floor. Her hands flew to cover her mouth. Stepping back in surprise, I watched Neru's mother drop to her knees lifelessly and shake with trepidation. "K..." She stuttered. "Kaga... mine... Len...?" Wild eyes slowly turned on me, wide and afraid and filled with anxiety.

"A... are you okay?" The shards of the broken glass must have cut her when she fell, there was blood slowly flowing out from beneath her knees. "Wh—what do I-"

"You are... Kagamine Len...?" Her voice was quiet and wavery. "Wh... why are... you both..."

"Akita-san, you're bleedi—"

"Kagamine, come on!" Neru yelled from the front of the house, completely unaware of what was happening to her mom. "Weren't you the one who said we were limited on time?"

Looking back and forth between the two of them, hesitant and indecisive, I had no idea what to do. Here was Neru's very, very strange mother, going into some sort of shock because I told her my name and Neru waiting for me to get on the bike so that we wouldn't have to hand over her very, very strange mother to Hatsune. I checked the clock again. 12:35 AM.

"Damn it... Sorry, Akita-san, I don't know what... I can't..." She was still unresponsive with no reaction to her injury, possibly unaware that she was hurt at all. With little resolve, I took a deep breath, ignoring the red slipping into cracks between the floorboards, and lifted Neru's mother off of the ground. I unflatteringly carried her like a wet towel over my shoulder and quickly laid her down on her couch. Numerous shards, small and large, were sticking out of her bare legs.

"KAGAMINE! GET OUT HERE!" She shouted from outside a second time. 12:37 AM. We needed to get going.

"Sorry, Akita-san..." I ran after Neru, leaving her mother in that same confused state as she mumbled more incomprehensible things about me.

* * *

_Why did she freak out when I told her my name?_

_Does Neru's mother know me somehow?_

_Is Neru hiding something from me?_

_Can I really trust Neru? _

_Why did Hatsune tell Neru to bring me along with her? _

_Didn't Neru say Hatsune had a nervous breakdown in her house once?_

_Are these two incidents related to each other in some way?_

_What's _really _going on here?_

"Akita... is your mom sick?"

Fifteen minutes of distance were put between us and Neru's home. We were out of Sorairo County by then, on the outermost extremities of Ejima. It's structured in a pretty weird way; the most metropolitan areas are located in the very center of the city, and it gets less inhabited and more isolated as you go further away in diameter, like a big circle. There weren't anymore houses in our way, just the road and 30 foot tall trees passing us by in blurs of dark green. I chose not to tell her about what had happened until I calmed down enough to think straight.

"Sick?" She repeated. "She wasn't this morning. What're you asking that for?"

"Not sick as in a cold," I started. "Sick as in... in the head."

"What? What are you even talking about?"

I couldn't think of a way to ask without offending her. "Nevermind."

"... Weirdo." She muttered quietly.

So I let the topic stand idle for the rest of the ride, not doing anything with it but not forgetting about it either. The way Neru's mother just broke down suddenly was too unsettling to ignore. She'd probably be okay... it didn't seem like she had lost so much blood that it'd be a threat to her life. I had too many things to worry about over my head to think too much about that woman's outburst. But still...

Suddenly, Neru flicked the back of my head. "Hey! You missed it! We were supposed to stop back there."

"Huh?" I dragged the heel of my shoes in the ground to bring the bike to a stop. She quickly hopped off and gestured for me to follow her.

There were only a bunch of trees where she was heading. "Akita, I don't see any house over there."

"Of course you wouldn't! It's in here." Neru stepped over a bush and pointed the flashlight through the thicket of branches. The light she swung around felt infinitely small compared to the monstrously thick layers of darkness underneath the sea of trees. You don't even have to ask if I was scared; I was, I definitely was. Part of me wanted to grab the flashlight and get the hell out of there, while the other part of me knew that that would be stupid and inconducive to rescuing my sister. It was my decision to go through with Neru's plan, after all. I had a strong hunch that Hatsune was buying time for herself, and that's why she drugged Neru - to end the fight quickly and thus keep Neru from pursuing her for as long as possible. Chances are Hatsune didn't use anything worse than a few sleeping pills, which would have made it impossible for me to go after her because I needed Neru to tell me what to do.

That also ties into how Hatsune told us to meet at 6:30 PM, four hours after school ends. After-school club activities don't take any longer than two hours, which would leave the school emptied out by 4:30 PM. If she only wanted to wait until the time when no one would be around, then 5 PM at the most should've been perfect. Instead, she chose to meet an hour and a half later. That led me to believe that Hatsune was stalling for something, or that she had a strict schedule she needed to follow in order for her plan to work. A strong sleeping pill would keep Neru unconscious for six to eight hours, probably, leaving her unable to do anything until tomorrow. What Hatsune _didn't_ count on was Rin. She had no way of knowing that Rin would follow me there. I think it would've actually been _me_ getting kidnapped and driven away in that long black car if it hadn't been for my sister. Because of that, she improvised and took Rin along instead, not seeing any point in taking both of us since we'd both be helpless as long as Neru was asleep. If I hadn't been so impatient and turned cold shower water on her, things might've gone exactly as Hatsune had planned. That's the reason why I figured it'd be best if we left immediately to catch her off guard.

Of course, I could've been utterly, completely wrong. Those were only my assumptions based on a few coincidences. Who knows, we could've been walking right into a trap, but I felt a lot better trying to do something than waiting at home for Neru to wake up.

"Kagamine, quit standing there already! It's this way!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."

* * *

Neru got tired a few minutes after walking on her own, so I ended up having to carry her again and left my bike behind. Ducking under branches and avoiding tripping over roots was a pain, especially with her on my back complaining about everything despite insisting that we needed to stay quiet. Every so often I stepped on a twig or a bunch of dead leaves and Neru would squeeze my shoulder to stop and listen to see if anyone was following us, which was nerve-wracking and annoying.

"Can't use it any closer than this, they'll see us." She turned off the flashlight.

"_I_ can't see us either." I wasn't making a joke; we were completely swallowed up by the dark the second the light disappeared. I couldn't even see my own hands, much less the supposed house we were looking for.

"Quiet." Neru whispered. "No more talking from here on out. And let me down."

The seriousness of her tone made me nervous. I did as she asked.

She took my hand in hers and tugged on it for me to follow her. I could vaguely make out her bright orange-yellow hair, but other than that, the only sign that Neru was there at all was the ghostly feeling of her cold hand leading me forward.

I regretted the entire thing as soon as I saw the house come into view. If the trees around us were 30 feet tall, Hatsune's house must've been at least 60. It was pure white, making it stand out enough to be visible. I won't bother giving you more estimated measurements, so just imagine a really, really, really, really, really big house and multiple that by two. That's what I was looking at.

Neru didn't react at all and simply continued on. I heard her panting lowly as she led us to an inconspicuous clearing between the forest and Hatsune's house, getting slower but persistently moving forward unlike before. I think I could understand why she was suddenly so determined. Rin and her friend were close. The sooner we got in that house, the sooner we could find them, get out, and put an end this nightmare.

"Through... here." She wheezed. "Don't make... any noise..."

We pushed through some bushes and found ourselves coming out through a clearing of grass. Hatsune's house was just 20 feet away from us and there was no other way to get closer without running across out in the open. I couldn't tell if her guards were nearby or make out any cameras, leaving us blind to the dangers of getting caught.

_I sound just like a bank robber..._

"We're gonna run as fast as we... can... and go to that pile of... bricks... over there. See it?" Neru pointed at a very dull spot of brownish-red resting next to the white of the house. I nodded.

"Good." She said, squeezing my hand tightly. "Ready?"

My heart pounded against my chest. It was still hard to accept that we were seriously about to break into someone's house. Heck, it was still hard to accept that _I_ was in this mess, period. I kept wondering throughout the ride here whether or not I was having some wild dream, that Neru was just some strange girl I'd conjured up who didn't really exist. I wasn't ready at all.

"Uhh... yeah. I guess."

"Okay, come on!"

* * *

It wasn't nearly as dangerous as Neru made it out to be. She tripped over a sprinkler on the way to the other side and I had to carry her bridal-style (again) for the remaining 10 feet, but if you ignore that little incident, we made it to the bricks without any problems. There wasn't even a single guard in sight to bother us. Which was... unnaturally serendipitous. Neru—did—shriek a little when she fell down, but not even one guard came. With a house like that one, there should've been at least a few people outside to protect it from robbers (like us)...

Neru wasn't concerned at all, though. She didn't try to catch her breath, just began to unstack the bricks against the wall as soon as I put her down.

"What the hell... they're way... way heavier than before..." She groaned, unable to lift any of them.

"Move, I'll do it."

Neru stubbornly continued trying to pick them up. "Grrr... why can't I..."

"Hey, I got it. Relax." I demonstrated this by grabbing a brick with both hands and pretty easily lifting it off of the pile. "You can't do everything you could before, remember? Drugged."

"Ugh... pain in the ass... Miku... When I get the... chance, I'll—"

"Akita." I interrupted suddenly.

"I'll destroy that psycho! And if she ever—"

"Akita!" I squeezed her shoulder.

"_What? _What? What's the holdup?" She faced me.

"... Turn around."

Five feet behind us, two enormous bulldogs crouched, alert on their heels, snarling, growling, seconds away from attacking the both of us.

* * *

_A/N: Phew. Writing this took nearly an entire month. It's the longest chapter since CH1, and also the most eventful! After this, though, I don't know how long it'll be until the next. With two consecutive deaths in the family, writing this became less of a personal project and more of a chore. I need a little break. Because of this, the next chapter may not appear until next month!_

_P.S. Len calling Neru by her last name in dialogue and her first name out of dialogue is intentional._


End file.
